The Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna said on Tuesday it has successfully bred one of the most endangered species of turtle, the Batagur baska, for the first time in captivity.Two baby Batagur turtles were hatched in the zoo’s reptile house at the beginning of May, the zoo said in a statement.

The Batagur baska — which is listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature — is a river terrapin that can grow to up to 60 centimetres (24 inches).At home in the rivers of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and Bangaldesh, its meat and eggs were long considered a delicacy.More

Cambodia – Conservationists in Cambodia are celebrating the hatching of a clutch of eggs from one of the world’s most critically endangered animals, the Siamese crocodile.Thirteen infants crawled out of their shells over the weekend in a remote part of the Cardamom Mountains in southwestern Cambodia, following a weekslong vigil by researchers who found them in the jungle.

Experts believe as few as 250 Siamese crocodiles are left in the wild, almost all of them in Cambodia but with a few spread between Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and possibly Thailand.The operation to protect and hatch the eggs was mounted by United Kingdom-based Fauna and Flora International, for whom conservation of this once-abundant species is a key program.

“Every nest counts,” program manager Adam Starr told Associated Press Television News. “To be able to find a nest is a very big success story, to be able to hatch eggs properly is an even bigger success story.”The nest, with 22 eggs inside, was discovered in the isolated Areng Valley. Fauna and Flora International volunteers removed 15 of them to a safe site and incubated them in a compost heap to replicate the original nest. They left seven behind because they appeared to be unfertilized.More

Governments must act decisively to prevent the extinction of tigers in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region, where numbers have plunged more than 70 percent in 12 years, the WWF said Tuesday.The wild tiger population across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam has dropped from an estimated 1,200 in 1998 — the last Year of the Tiger — to around 350 today, according to the conservation group.The report was released ahead of a landmark three-day conference on tiger conservation which opens Wednesday in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, with ministers from 13 Asian tiger range countries attending.

It said the regional decline was reflected in the global wild tiger population, which is at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.”Today, wild tiger populations are at a crisis point,” the WWF said, ahead of the start of the Year of the Tiger on February 14, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.More

Governments must act decisively to prevent the extinction of tigers in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region, where numbers have plunged more than 70 percent in 12 years, the WWF said Tuesday.The wild tiger population across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam has dropped from an estimated 1,200 in 1998 — the last Year of the Tiger — to around 350 today, according to the conservation group.The report was released ahead of a landmark three-day conference on tiger conservation which opens Wednesday in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, with ministers from 13 Asian tiger range countries attending.

It said the regional decline was reflected in the global wild tiger population, which is at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.”Today, wild tiger populations are at a crisis point,” the WWF said, ahead of the start of the Year of the Tiger on February 14, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.More

The last wild Indochinese tiger in China was killed and eaten by a man who was yesterday sentenced to 12years’jail.Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, came across the tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve near China’s border with Laos.He claimed to have killed it in self-defence.The only known wild Indochinese tiger in China, photographed in 2007 at the same reserve, has not been seen since Kang’s meal, the Yunnan-based newspaper Life News reported earlier this month.

A local court sentenced Kang to 10 years for killing a rare animal plus two years for illegal possession of firearms.Prosecutors said Kang did not need a gun to gather clams.Four villagers who helped Kang dismember the tiger and ate its meat were also sentenced from three to four years for ‘covering up and concealing criminal gains’, the report said.

A dog called Oscar is has laid claim to the title of the animal kingdom’s most intrepid explorer after visiting famous landmarks around the world. His travels include five continents, 29 countries and stopping off everywhere from the Eiffel Tower to the Taj Mahal.Oscar was rescued from a South African kennel by owner Joanne Lefson five years ago. In May the pair began an epic journey hoping to inspire millions to help save his fellow canines living as strays on the streets.

Dodging crocodile-infested rivers, walking on the Great Wall of China and escaping Italian police Oscar finally finished his tour last week.The £250,000 six-month trip – which Joanne funded by selling her home – also took in 15,000 shelter dogs and at more than 50 charity-run rescue centres.The pair capped off the tour at Brazil’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, Brazil.

Ms Lefson, who is half British and half South African, had the idea to take the titanic trip dubbed ‘The World Woof Tour’.
She said it was a miracle Oscar was alive let alone a globe trotter.She said: “If I hadn’t gone to the kennel that fateful day Oscar had one more day left and would have been put down.”When I discovered what a wonderful dog Oscar was it broke my heart to think how many ‘Oscar’s’ are still out there and simply just don’t get that second chance.More